Story: Eden on Centro
A story about some clans of Irkaputh hitchhiking to Centro, and life afterwards. The Eden in the title refers to the Eden of the Irkaputh religion. Chapter 1: Change in the Wind At the edge of a large forest inside a bustling metropolis, a small sophont looked through the branches of a Voiced tree. He contemplated the wonders of the world, and how his clan had spread Eden through a place filled with violence and greed. Many of the Urahob's rooftops were brown and green with soil and plants, and vine-like plants reached across streets to connect it all. Their Eden had helped cleanse the air, and the beauty of it had made some of the Urahob glad to be alive. Their urban Eden was the pride of the Irkapuths here, which numbered to nearly 1,000. Chieftain Hekla smiled gently to himself at what he and his ancestors had achieved. The wind blew through the branches once more, and he listened to the Voice of the World as its loyal servant. It gently pulled his attention towards a sign, and the wind stopped, and Hekla thanked the Voice for its advice. He left the chamber within the Voiced tree, and perched upon an outer branch. He stared at the sign with wonder. His kind knew that the stars were like the Sun, and knew that stars were contained within a galaxy within a Universe. What he saw, though, boggled his mind. He didn't know of what the words meant, but the picture got the message across clear enough. The Voice of the World had told him that there was a vehicle, like that which travelled through the sky. This, though, travelled far further. It traveled to another Sun. It travelled to another world, where Eden had not yet reached. It became clear to the half-metron-long creature that this was where the Voice asked him to go. There was an option to stay here, with home and family, but it was his duty. He left the tree, and began to fly around the park to spread the word. __________________________________________________________________________________________ The Zyrothan ship was gargantuan as Hekla approached. He wasn't alone. 11 tribes in total were boarding the ship, hopefully. He had 2 of them with him, including his own. He looked behind him and said for them to look upwards. There was a passage where strange creatures, as well as Urahobs, were boarding. The Sgarpo riders started climbing the wall, while the others simply flew upwards. In the times when no one was looking, groups of Irkaputh boarded. 10 tribes managed to get on. What happened to the last one, I hear you ask? They didn't get away from the engines in time. __________________________________________________________________________________________ "In the latest news, Urahob kind are going where no Urahob has gone before: Centro. A planet with over 40% of its surface covered in cities, it is the home world of the long-gone Sii. Nowadays, it belongs to numerous races, including the Salsenes and Zyrothans.... ....In other news, over 500 Irkapuths have gone missing from the Central Forest. It is unknown where they are or what happened to them, but theories come from the worrying, such as pesticides killing them off, to the crackpot, like being abducted by aliens." Chapter 2: Another world It was a long, tense time as the Irkaputh hid in various places around the ship. Numerous times, they were almost discovered, but they managed to keep themselves a secret. One tribe hadn't arrived on the ship, from what numerous messengers had said. They would be okay, Hekla reassured himself, as he lurked in the blackness he was hiding in. There had been something strange and frightening happening, but now it had stopped. A voice was heard on a loudspeaker as the Chieftan slowly cleaned his spear with a small bit of acid, and watched over some seeds he had taken for this world's Eden. A tree seed to be Voiced, the best of the vines that they had, some mossy stuff, and a type of plant that could capture dirt and dust from the air and turn it into soil. Then there was a massive jolt, and Hekla hit the wall almost like a cartoon character. Then he did it again on the floor. Rubbing his head, the Irkaputh gathered his items and told the others to leave the ship, as this obviously meant that the machine had landed. Unseen, the procession of invaders left the starship, and gathered. It was daytime on Centro. The skyline was much higher than anything the small creatures had seen before, filling them with awe and wonder. They knew that was where they headed. They took flight, and searched. They discovered a home in the form of the roof of a comparitively short house. As the procession of creatures landed on the surface of the building, Hekla gave orders. "We need to split up and find materials to build with," he explained to those that had arrived. "We don't know what lives here, or what the weather is like in the dark. Shelter is needed. We also need food, as many of us are probably hungry. Materials for a fire shall be needed, and we can use the ash to plant the first akelap plant." (Akelaps are the soil-makers.) They were in agreement on that. The tribes talked amongst themselves, and decided who was going to do what. Then they left the roof of the building. _________________________________________________________________________________________ The newly-elected Chiefhunter Orpew flew with his hunters to a good spot to watch the various species walk. He noticed that all of them were much larger than any Irkaputh. Spear in hand, he spotted a backstreet, and something rummaging through garbage. Killing that creature would free access to the garbage, which was also needed, so the group were commanded to cross the street and investigate. Orpew perched on a building ledge, and looked down. The creature had revealed itself. Well, sort of. It was actually a group of smaller creatures. They had wings, and six walking legs, as well as wings. The group silently organised themselves, then ambushed the Rizzaks. Half of them leaped from their perches, main wings spread, spearing their prey in a dive-bomb. The creatures were clearly unused to aerial attack, as the survivors simply fled, not looking for more. That was their mistake, and most of them were also caught. The hunt was much easier than what the Irkapuths were used to, and they now had food. Not enough, but if hunts continued like this, then there'd be plenty to eat until the plants were large enough to gather food from. Orpew told one of his faster hunters to find the scavenger group and tell them to come over, and told some of the better flyers to take the dead Rizzaks back to the camp. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Chiefscavenger Yoet was doing well. Around half of her group had been sent back to the camp with their finds, and they had also killed some weird insectomimid-like things and sent them back. She picked up something, decided it was flammable, and told someone to take it back to camp. She heard someone call, and looked up. A hunter? The fellow Irkaputh landed, and said, "We've found some more stuff to scavenge. Are you done here?" After looking around, Yoet nodded. She ordered the remainder of her group to follow the warrior. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Chieftain Hekla looked at what had been given. They were in four piles: Stuff to make objects from, stuff to make huts from, stuff to make fires from and food. He turned to the rest of the megaclan. "On the behalf of all of us, I thank the brave hunters and scavengers that explored this unknown place for the good of all of us. Sundown is soon, and thanks to you, we shall have enough resources to create shelter and fill our stomachs. Chiefcook Pwei, Chiefcrafter Mona?" A female and male Irkaputh respectively exited the crowd, nodded their thanks to the others, and brought their groups to begin construction of a fire and a home. Chapter 3: WHAT NOT TO DO - First Contact The soft glow of the city swam amongst the skyscrapers whilst Hekla waited for the first ray of sunlight to hit the campfire. Centro's sun lit up the ashes, grain by grain, until it reached the top of the mound. The Chieftain gave a screech, awaking the tribe as they were usually awoken. The sudden thump from underneath, though, was not expected. A peek through the windows below revealed that they had just awoken a Salsene. It was quickly decided that the best course of action was to hit the window with the back of a spear to tell it to shut up. It went about as well as crows banging on a window. Except with spears. And acid. And boiling hot chemical reactions. And guns. And the Salsene ringing the CSA. And nets. And total disaster. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Hekla had no idea what these idiotic aliens were babbling on about, mainly due to the fact that it was in a different language. He tapped his knuckle on the table, before hopping back to the chair's arm once more. Using the general idea of 'fancy clothing = power', the group of people assigned to sorting out this mess had figured out that Hekla was leader of the Irkapuths. After messing with a translator a bit, figuring out a couple of words, and getting something for the smaller sophont to draw on, they managed to get a simple comunication set up between them. It was decided that a Lentaa was doing the conversation, as they were best at communication. The size difference wasn't quite so useful. And, after preparation, the investigation began. "Where did your kind come from?" the Lentaa asked, using a couple of pictures of maps to get the message across. Hekla replied by drawing a galaxy, with one of the arms marked with a simple spiral, then doing the same for solar system and planet. He also made a basic picture of the space ship they had travelled in, and the line from Centro to Ageriul. After some verification, the Lentaa typed, 'Unknown Sophont is originally from planet Ageriul, boarded a ship'. "Why are you here?" the Lentaa asked this time, using the same line that the Irkaputh had used, and drawing some pictures on it showing activities such as getting more space or eating and becoming full. Hekla responded with a basic picture of some skyscrapers and then another with plants on the skyscrapers, with a depiction of the Voice (shown using drag around Irkaputh tassles) above that. The Lentaa typed, 'Unknown Sophont wishes to grow plants in the city'. "Are you willing to return to your homeworld?" was asked this time, using a backwards depiction of the line that Hekla had used to say they had gone to Centro. Hekla replied with a drawing of an Irkaputh spitting. 'Unknown Sophont does not want to leave'. "Are you aggressive?" the Lentaa asked now, using Irkaputh head pictures spitting at other sophont head pictures. The translator actually came in useful this time. "No," Hekla replied. The Lentaa typed, 'Unknown Sophont says it is not aggressive unless with reason (verification needed)'. The Lentaa then wrote some other information down. 'Unknown Sophont appears to be flight-capable, communicates using gestures, can spit a caustic liquid, is smallest sophont so far discovered (verification needed)' After briefly thanking the Irkaputh for staying calm and civil, the Lentaa left the room, and Hekla joined the rest of the Irkapuths in holding. Category:Non-Canon Stories